Rich woman seeks buyer for good-as-new designer frock

Trophy wives are selling their designer-label booty for cash as part of a fashion laundering scam

At Sign of the Times, a high-end dress agency in Chelsea, a client is haggling over the price of an "as new" Hermès Birkin - but as she's here to sell, she's trying to drive the price up. She walks away to the tune of £4,000. "It's all we could give her," says the owner, Lorraine Fraser. "We have to make some profit." According to Fraser, "people bring in expensive mistakes, or unwanted gifts from ex-boyfriends". But reports of a new trend, whereby wives of wealthy bankers are spending on their husbands' credit cards, only to resell the goods to stores like Fraser's and pocket the cash, suggest that perhaps these expensive "mistakes" represent an emerging mini-industry in fashion laundering.

Syl Tang, a trend tracker at Hip Guide, says that, in New York, fashion laundering is rife among women concerned about their husbands' diminishing earning power. As many marriages hit the